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Jacob/BlankEarth
Jacob Procter, né Jacob Delsin (born Justin Miller), is one of the main supporting characters in Blank Earth and the main protagonist/narrator of Of Cigarettes & Copulation. In 'Blank Earth', Jacob is introduced as an opiate-addicted hermit living in downtown Seattle, Washington. In 'Of Cigarettes & Copulation', Jacob returns as the main protagonist and works alongside May Lawson in a harsh fourteen-day campaign to topple the Sacchitello Crime Family which culminated in his death on top of the Stansfield Building. Early Life Jacob Delsin (born Justin Miller) was born in the city of Vancouver, Washington to Taylor Watson and Jonathan Miller on April 7th, 1994. From a rather young age, Justin was an extremely friendly, eccentric and outgoing child; his charisma, kind nature and desire to learn and master almost any topic not only enabled him to succeed academically but played into his ability to develop strong friendships and common interests with relative ease. At the age of seven, Justin witnessed and intervened in an attempted abduction of his younger sister by an older man while the to were at the nearby park. Having felt helpless in the situation, Justin convinced his parents to allow him to begin taking weekly self-defence and martial arts classes (namely taekwondo and jiu-jitsu) which continued into his early teenage years, sparking an interest in other physical activities. By 2009, during his sophomore year at Edison Bell High, Justin had become a prestigious and admired student, well respected by tutors and peers alike; Justin developing several large circles of friends, the smallest of whom included his close friends Jake Clemons, Megan Elizabeth, Ethan Webb, Lynn Clark, and Alyssa Walker. His interest in sports had since developed into a full-time hobby as he became a member of the school's basketball team, and helped to lead the school to many victories against other teams statewide as power-forward. Under The Stars It was around this time that Justin (who generally abstained from romance) began dating his fellow classmate and cheerleading captain Emily Kaufman. Unfortunately, this relationship wouldn’t last for long -- by late-June 2010, Justin and his family would be relocated to the small town of Aberdeen, Washington, due to economic and work-related reasons. This change drastically affected Justin, who felt that his life, friends, and hard-earned achievements had now been ripped from him and as such, had difficulties socializing and making friends in the new town and became withdrawn and introverted, while in the process gaining a newfound appreciation for music, painting and poetry as an outlet for his previously repressed emotions. Eventually, Justin would find his new clique among a group of rebellious skaters, stoners and lowlifes led by local troublemakers Kurt Brewster and Hayley Anderson, the latter of whom Justin would become casually involved with. Much to his mother’s behest, Justin had begun skipping school to hang at the nearby skate park and committed petty acts of vandalism and theft, while growing a general disdain for his parents and authority figures whom Justin had felt were responsible for his now disillusioned view of the world. The Rain of April Another major change in Justin's life occurred suddenly on the morning of March 17th, 2011, when his mother was killed in a collision on a drive home from work. This event shattered Justin's already unstable relationship with his family, particularly his father, who quickly took to alcoholism and became prone to violent outbursts towards both his children. Zoë would also grow increasingly reclusive, near-mute, engaging in self-harm, smoking, and sex with another boy, things of which Justin felt beyond his capacity to control, yet he felt too ashamed and sympathetic to discipline or condemn hern for. It wasn't long after that Justin's life would again shift upon meeting Alex Peterson, a transfer student who had just moved to the coastal Washington town from Oregon with her foster parents. Alex was almost immediately shunned by her fellow students once it was discovered that she was a lesbian, and soon connected with Justin, as both shared feelings of grief, cynicism, rebellion, and disdain towards a town they felt alien to. Justin would take this opportunity to distance himself from home and school over the course of several weeks and cathartically deal with his mother's death. In the process, developing a strange and intimate romance with Alex, that slowly became more serious as the two opened up about their lives and aspirations. Not long after, Justin and Alex would hitch a plan to hop on a freight train out of the small town and towards the big city of Seattle, Washington -- and with the help of their mutual friend Hayley, this dream would very quickly transform into a reality, culminating with the couple sneaking out in the middle of the night and leaving their old lives behind them. In celebration of a new beginning, Justin helped Alex dye her hair blue, while Justin decided to change his name to sever all ties to his past -- becoming Jacob Delsin. Arriving in Seattle, Jacob and Alex sought out Dawn Anderson, Hayley's older sister and a laid-back hippie who would provide the two with a place to stay and the means to find footing in their new lives. Over time, she would become an extremely close friend of the couple, with the elder Dawn straddling the line between being an active third wheel in the relationship and a semi-parental figure to the couple. Jacob and Alex would also become acquainted and friendly with Zachary Richards and his young sister Ami Richards, who were themselves runaways who had fled from an abusive household several years prior and had adapted to living on the edge of poverty in Seattle. The Melancholy of Separation Jacob spent nearly two years living together with Alex and Dawn, when he suddenly began having night terrors, panic attacks and grew increasingly distant and self-destructive; feeling a strong sense of guilt for having abandoned his younger sister. It wasn't long thereafter that both Alex and Jacob soon came to the mutual conclusion that their relationship had been a strange cosmic coincidence based around a dependency for one-another that had no longer existed and the two had decided to call quits on their relationship. It wasn't long thereafter that Jacob would make the decision to move out of the household and instead move in with Zachary, while his younger sister Ami took up residence at Dawn's and Alex embarked on a lonesome soul-searching journey down the west coast. Not long after moving in with Zachary, Jacob's previous harmless experimentation with drugs under Dawn’s roof had grown and manifested into a full-blown addiction to opiates that both he and Zachary mutually engaged in, alongside Zach's on-again, off-again girlfriend Kim Min-Ji. After a few months, Jacob and Zachary would soon become romantically involved and dependant upon each other. At this point, Jacob had practically become a hermit, spending the majority of his days indoors, shooting up, engaged in sexual activity with Zachary and/or Kim. Jacob and Kim soon hatched a scheme to distribute their homemade sex tapes as a means of making a quick buck to varying degrees of success, this business venture was short-lived, however, as the VHS recorder that the trio had used to record and duplicate their tapes had ultimately crapped out. Over the period of time he spent living with Zachary, Jacob had become increasingly malnourished, having lost a ghastly amount of weight due to his drug use and relatively non-existent diet that consisted of little more than black coffee and microwave ramen. Several months later, Kim had been arrested and sent to prison on a year-long sentence for drug trafficking, leaving Jacob and Zachary to have to resort to purchasing their drugs from Garcia Espinõsa, a member of the local Sereños Locos 13 gang. It wasn’t long after that another tragedy would strike Jacob, as, after a typical night of binging, he would wake up to discover that Zachary had overdosed and passed in his sleep. After nearly two hours of crying and desperate but vain attempts at resuscitation, Jacob, dazed and seeing little alternative, made the decision to dispose of his boyfriend’s body, dumping it into the waters of Puget Sound. This traumatic memory would haunt Jacob for the rest of his life. In the months that followed, Jacob would make several attempts to become sober and quit cold turkey, to no apparent avail. He would always inevitably relapse or collapse under the weight of his withdrawal. Jacob’s desperation to rid himself of his dependance had reached such an extreme point emotionally that Jacob began contemplating suicide as a means of escape, but inevitably opted-out of acting upon it. Jacob instead began making the effort to make infrequent visits to Dawn’s when he wasn’t too high or too dopesick, with the intention of visiting and overseeing Zach's younger sister, Ami. Jacob felt an enormous amount of guilt for having stolen from her what he saw as potential months or years with her elder brother, a guilt trip of which only worked to recall his own memories of abandoning his sister, and made every attempt to become a sort of surrogate brother in Zachary's place. In the year and a half that she had spent living with Dawn, the developmentally-challenged Ami had made leaps and bounds of progress in terms of discovering how to express herself and her emotions, largely through her exploration and love for various forms of art. Jacob’s visits would often include him gifting her with new supplies and utensils, much to her joy, and Ami would grow to even to the point of admiration. It was also during these occasional visits that Jacob had met and befriended one of the newer individuals to take up residence during his absence; Jay Sanders, who, like Jacob, was relatively introverted and quiet compared to her housemates. Jay, whose idea of hanging out included tinkering around in the garage while drinking beer, enjoyed Jacob’s relatively silent form of company and the two grew even closer as a result. Jay soon encouraged Jacob to live a healthier lifestyle and become more physically active in response to his cadaverous appearance and junkie lifestyle, but even with this encouragement, Jacob struggled to grasp with any real motivation. It was clear to see that Jacob and Jay had become infatuated with each other (going so far as to be nicknamed “J-squared” by others in the household), but the attraction was short-lived after the two finally hooked up and Jacob was once again, swamped by his own internal guilt, apologizing continuously even though it had been Jay that initiated it. After this, Jacob’s interaction with those living with Dawn once again dwindled and his visits became once again scarce and infrequent. Blank Earth A Dinner Proposition One Warm Night Of Cigarettes & Copulation While in the process of taking down the Sacchitiello crime family, Jacob is joined by May Lawson of whom he had previously slept with earlier in the book. Jacob learns quite easily that May had only slept with him so that she could get information from him as she holds a vendetta against the family for murdering her brother (May never obtains this information from Jacob, because he was clueless as to the events around him). It's revealed that sleeping with Mafia-associated men (and usually killing them afterwards) is a common tactic of hers. Unlike with Ami, Jacob remains indifferent to being used and over the course of their time together, their attraction and forced reliance upon each other begins to blossom into something more. Death and Legacy Personality Jacob is presented as a detached -- yet, still morally compassionate person. Always rooting for the underdog and tending to make more acquaintances than enemies. As his initial pessimism and sometimes disgust for society is a reflection of Jacob's own internal self-loathing and guilt. This line of thinking leads Jacob to live a rather solitary lifestyle -- and returns years later after the death of his wife and unborn child. However, even with his virtues, it seems that Jacob has issues being able to find a connection, attachment or empathy for individuals. In 'Blank Earth', Jacob notes having a history of attachment issues which is possibly one of the reasons for his detachment and isolation from others and his inability to truly open up to those he isn't close with. In both of his appearances, he tends to live in apartments that appear to be in disrepair and lives a very minimalist lifestyle, with none of what little he owns being of any real value, this usually deters neighbours who might otherwise rob him. In 'Blank Earth', Jacob is shown to have an addiction to opiate painkillers among false rumours in his social circle that he had begun shooting heroin. Jacob also is commonly seen drinking and smoking both in social situations and when by himself. Jacob prefers his substance abuse to remain personal and separate from his social life and usually avoids discussing such topics around his friends, going so far as to isolate himself for weeks when either binging on substances or dealing with withdrawal. However, even with this behavior, Jacob seems to have little problem - albeit only occasionally - joining Dawn Anderson's group sessions. In 'Of Cigarettes & Copulation', Jacob is shown to have become a much more indifferent individual, no longer viewing things with a pessimistic outlook and instead of seeing everything from an apathetic standpoint, caring and noticing very little about things that don't immediately affect him. Jacob is also shown to have grown a sarcastic and cynical sense of humor. It's shown that since the death of his wife, Sophia, Jacob has returned to smoking and has become an alcoholic, yet has remained surprisingly clean of opiate abuse due to their price and availability. Physical Appearance Jacob's hair is a greasy dark brown -- almost black color that drapes down into his face often covering one or both of his eyes. His eyes are a grey/olive color that change depending on the light. In Blank Earth, Jacob Delsin is described as being extremely thin, pale and lanky in appearance. He maintains a very scruffy appearance. Jacob is described as wearing a blue denim vest with black leather sleeves, a long-sleeved flannel shirt underneath and baggy jeans with holes and rips in various locations. Jacob also tends to accessorize his appearance, wearing various pins on the front of his jacket, black fingerless gloves and chains that hang from his belt. In Of Cigarettes & Copulation, Jacob is much more cleaned up, his body is now more lean and muscular due to a consistent work out routine, his hair is now parted down the middle and his bangs are now moved out of his face. Jacob still looks scruffy due to his lack of care to clean himself up often. Jacob is seen throughout the novel wearing the same suit that he wore to his wedding, though it is stained and dirty from having being worn for days on end and he wears the outfit rather casually, ignoring the tie and unbuttoning the shirt around the neck, later in the novel Jacob updates his outfit with a tailored suit lined with stab-resistant carbon nanotubes and a bright red tie with Level IIIA kevlar bulletproof armor underneath. Appearances * Nihilist Apathy ** Under The Stars ** The Rain of April ** The Melancholy of Separation * Blank Earth (first appearance) * Nihilist Apathy ** One Warm Night * Snow In Summer (mentioned) * Of Cigarettes & Copulation (dies) * Nihilist Apathy ** One More Night (voice) ** Saudade (posthumous) * Holmes (mentioned) Killed Victims Jacob has possibly the largest body count of any character in the main universe, despite having no military background or experience, his familiarity with street-brawling and a variety of martial arts (largely regarding grappling, redirection and pressure points), as well as pain tolerance and unpredictability, lends him an advantage in combat. This list shows the victims Jacob has killed: * Zachary Richards (indirectly caused) - * Norman Kohvler - * Anthony Sacchitellio - * Victor 'Vito' Henderson - * Logan Benton (caused) - * Michael Sacchitellio - * Numerous counts of gangsters and hired guns working for the Sacchitellio family. Relationships